


Occluded Fronts

by RedKaprosuchus



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Comedy, F/F, F/M, I mean kind of a little bit, Multi, Romance, Several Years after the show, Slice of Life, Solitary Confinement, or a lot idk how to judge being imprisoned on a mountain in the desert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26941393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedKaprosuchus/pseuds/RedKaprosuchus
Summary: Nyx gets a job.Soren gets a girlfriend.Claudia also gets a girlfriend.They're all related.
Relationships: Claudia/Nyx (The Dragon Prince), Nyx/Soren (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	1. Weathervane

**Author's Note:**

> Haven't written anything in a while. Don't really have a big plan for this, just have had this idea in my head for a while and wanted to start hammering it out, maybe get back in the swing of things. Please ask questions if things are unclear - I'll be happy to figure out where I need to put more information, or to steal that query as fuel for another chapter.

Nyx sighed as she flipped a single coin between her fingers.

If someone had told her years ago that she'd be flat broke and thinking about - ugh - returning to society, she'd have responded by asking what dumbass decisions she'd made to end up there. Nyx wasn't a genius, but she knew what she was good at - and managing her resources was pretty high up on the list. For years, she'd made a comfortable living in the Midnight Desert of all places - she knew where and when and how to find food and shelter, and when she needed something that she couldn't get herself? Well, helping others cross the desert was a valuable skill, and one she wasn't afraid to charge for. If other people found it a bit unfair that those services were a bit more valuable in the middle of the desert as opposed to the edge - well, they were free to leave anytime. Add in her natural charm and she was set.

At least until the whole human thing happened. Now, she wasn't one of those elves who disliked humans on principle; she was very aware that the body and the person weren't the same thing. Maybe it was the connection to the Sky Primal, or being born with wings, but she felt very strongly that how you looked didn't determine who you were - privately, she also very strongly found their hornless heads cute, but that was private. No, the issue she had with the humans was strictly economical. After that whole deal with the Dragon Prince, she'd figured it was smart to lay low and not play around in politics - sure she saved them a lot of time, but she didn't want to have to explain her reasoning to an adult Storm Dragon. So she'd been a little nervous when they started sending diplomatic caravans to and from the Storm Spire, and didn't capitalize on the increased traffic like she would have otherwise. So by the time she felt comfortable enough that bygones were bygones and she wouldn't get dirty looks at the mention of her name, she found something unpleasant. Namely, without a consistently available guide, the caravans had enlisted a horde of dragons to fly them around.

She didn't know what in all of Xadia had convinced the dragons that escort missions were worth their time, but it seemed to work. In fact, it worked so well that fewer and fewer people were crossing the desert directly. Oh sure, you'd get some human tourists and scholars who wanted to see the oasis but quite frankly they were too few and too far between. Maybe the worst of all, she couldn't even press too hard on the pricing since these weren't essential tasks she was performing; if they thought it was too expensive, they could just...not go. So not only was she getting fewer jobs, but she was getting paid less for them too. 

Which had left her in the sorry state she was in right now. Oh sure, she could live off the land, but her clothes and other gear were wearing out. She could patch some holes and polish her weapons, but she still needed to get the fabric, thread, and oils from someone who knew how to make them - and she was pretty sure the one coin she had on her wasn't going to cover all the things that she'd been putting off fixing, waiting for a lucrative enough job to come through that she could manage it.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and grimaced. The last thing she'd ever want was to move back to a city, or even a village, but it looked like she'd have to deal with it, at least for a while. She was going to have to get a job.

* * *

Soren tugged at his collar and looked at the floor briefly before returning his eyes to Ezran and Callum.

"Are you guys sure it should be me in charge of this? You don't think there'll be, like, a conflict of interest or anything?"

The brothers looked to each other before Callum spoke up. "That's actually why we think you should be in charge." Soren screwed up his face in confusion, and Callum raised his hands. "Let me explain - it's a very...sensitive situation. She's shown a change of heart, but that doesn't change all the bad things she's done in the past. We don't want anything bad to happen to her now that she's realized she'd gone too far, but, well..." He fumbled, but Ezran picked it up.

"She hurt a lot of people, and there have to be consequences. Even if we completely forgive her, even if we knew she'd never do anything bad again - people won't look at her the same. They'd look at her and see all the pain she's caused - and if they don't see us dealing justice, they'll look to take vengeance." The young king grimaced. "I don't really like it, but it seems like the best way to keep everyone safe."

Callum nodded. "Right, and that's why we want you in charge - we trust you - not just with her safety, but with the safety of everyone else, too. You won't let her get out, and you won't let anyone get away with mistreating her."

Soren wouldn't meet their eyes. "That makes sense, but, I don't think I could be there - I mean, what if we start talking, and she says something and I take it the wrong way and I do something I shouldn't and -"

"Soren." Ezran cut him off. "You don't have to stand guard over her personally. We just want you in charge of the people who do guard her. Make sure they're people you trust, and who trust you. We would _never_ ask you to put yourself in that kind of situation ever again." Soren nodded and stood just a little bit straighter. Callum chose that moment to chime back in.

"And if you really feel that you need a moderating influence, we can always ask Rayla to lend a hand-"

"I'm going to stop you right there - I'm pretty sure if there's anyone out there who's a _worse_ choice to be making decisions about the well-being of my sister, it's your wife." Soren squinted as the brothers looked at him meaningfully. "Okay, I think I get the point."

* * *

Claudia looked out at the clear blue sky. It was beautiful today, though she wished she could see some clouds, and try to find shapes in them. Of course, you don't get many clouds in deserts, and the Midnight Desert was no exception. At least this high up the heat was tolerable. She sat down on the ledge and kicked her feet, watching the pebbles tumble down the slope - down, down and down, till they were too small to track. If she squinted, she could see the guards standing at the base of the pillar of dark stone - in case she tried to climb down. She looked up, and could see the shadow of the dragon that was on guard duty today, circling around. She didn't know where they were stationed, or how often they changed the guard - and that was probably for the best.

She ran a hand through her shock-white hair, pulling it back from where it had fallen over her eternally-stained eyes. She couldn't blame them for not trusting her when she wasn't sure she could trust herself anymore. As the dragon - or it could be an elf, she knew some of them could fly, and it's not like she could really tell from this distance - slowly circled out of sight again, she thought about heading back inside. She glanced at the building that had been her home for - was it only a few weeks? Had it been a month? - a while now. It was nice enough in that it kept the weather out and offered her privacy, but she hadn't gotten used to the architecture yet. Light gray stone curved and carved in light, twisting angles that made it look like the walls and ceilings barely touched. Apparently this was a style popular with the Skywing Elves who'd built this place ages ago - but for Claudia it just felt like the place was ready to collapse.

As a chill breeze pulled some of the heat away, she decided she'd wait out until lunchtime - they'd send someone up with fresh food and to collect any trash, and even if they wouldn't talk to her, she could still talk to them - which was better than the silence of that big, empty house.


	2. Barometrics

Foot tapping, arms crossed, and head tilted skeptically, Nyx eyed the message board. It had taken a while to find - she didn't like to spend too much time in any town, and Darksands in particular had changed quite a bit in the last few years. She could still see the tiny houses she remembered from when this was a small stop for supplies for those crossing - or going around - the Midnight Desert, but they were overshadowed by the larger buildings that had seemed to sprout up like magic. Of course, she knew it hadn't been magic - she'd seen the tree-houses Earthblood elves grew, and these were not that. No, it had been another result of the increased traffic brought along by the humans and their politics; as more people came and went, they needed more supplies, more lodgings, more everything - and so they'd built what they'd needed, right on top of everything else. So she'd been a little miffed when she'd had to fly around in order to find the board where she'd found help with her repairs for years.

But more than that, she wasn't happy with any of the listed positions. They were, unpleasantly enough, most of the sort of tasks that she typically used coin to pay for - a leatherworker was looking for an apprentice, a tailor needed help keeping up with demand, a smith wanted someone to do something with the metal that...honestly, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know what corrosion index was given how many times it had been underlined. The only one she could see that she was remotely qualified for was a position in a bakery - and she was definitely more of a "put it in a pan and make it hot" sort of cook. 

Nyx sighed through her nose and shifted her weight - these were exactly the sort of things she didn't want to do, and why she'd opted for a nomadic lifestyle instead. But if she didn't want to ride bareback in threadworn clothes and catch all her food with her bare hands, she was going to have to do something.

She loosed her hands and started reaching for the information on the bakery job when someone cleared their throat. "Um, excuse me miss, can I...?" She turned to see a young-ish human (she wasn't great at guessing their ages) but this one didn't sound like an adult - with a piece of paper rolled up in one hand - the other was pointing towards the message board.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what the kid was asking for, so she stepped back for a second. "Sure thing love, go right ahead." The small human scurried up to the board, unrolled the paper, and stuck a pin in it.

They turned, adjusted their collar, and stiffly said "Thank you!" with a little crack to their voice as they bowed, and scampered away. Nyx smiled and shook her head before looking back to the board. She had to blink her eyes several times to make sure she wasn't imagining things, because the sign they'd put up had, in big block letters "COURIERS WANTED" right across the top. She stepped up close, gabbed the paper, and went over the finer details several times, just to be sure she wasn't missing anything.

_Regular position escorting cargo to and from predetermined locations in or around the Midnight Desert  
Anticipate several days journey, both directions  
Must be willing to work with Humans, Elves, and Dragons at destination  
Stipend available for equipment maintenance in addition to regular pay  
Inquiries to the New Administration Building_

Honestly, it sounded too good to be true - it was exactly the sort of thing Nyx would have described for herself. A brief glance to the left, then right, and she nicked the paper clean off the board, rolled it up, and tossed it into her bags. If anyone asked, she wanted to make sure she found the right building - there were so many new ones, lately - and if it happened to keep other folks from seeing it and competing for the position with her In the meantime? Well, that was just a happy coincidence, wasn't it?

She reached into her pocked and pulled out the one coin she had, and tossed it into the air just to catch it as she took to the sky. She'd have to see how much mileage she could get out of it - natural charisma could only do so much when your clothing was near threadbare, and Nyx wanted to make a _good_ impression.

* * *

Soren's eyes drooped, his shoulders sagged, and his sigh could have moved mountains. Here he was, face-to-face with what was possibly his most persistent foe; paperwork. Stacks upon stacks of papers, listing various suppliers of food stuff, transportation equipment, other consumables, and so many things that he really did not want to think about. Worst of all was that each list was accompanied by detailed reports Rayla and her scouts had compiled from scouting out each and every one of those vendors - such as their security, any grudges they may have with humans or dark magic in general, their connections and how _those_ connections may or may not be secure or biased, and so on...and what that resulted in was two big piles - one read, one unread; and unfortunately, the unread was growing faster than the read one.

He rubbed his temples and closed his eyes - he was pretty sure he'd read that paragraph detailing this baker's daughter's best-friend's father's moral scruples three times by now. Soren _understood_ that Rayla had just wanted to make sure he had as much information as possible to make a good decision, but that didn't change that he was positively _drowning_ in it. He was an excellent guard, and a fine soldier - but everybody knew that guarding and soldiering was 99% doing nothing and just making sure you were ready for that 1% of the time when you were needed. But trying to figure out where "guy who thinks humans are not great but doesn't talk about it much" ranked next to "guy who's super chill but his cousin thinks humans should all die" was not something he was well equipped for. He almost would have been better off standing guard personally - except that he knew how much that would hurt.

A knock on the door, and he groaned. "What is it, Parviz?"

A timid voice answered. "Uh, someone's here about the courier positions?"

Soren perked up - "You mean the one Quinn just went out to post this morning?" If Lady Luck was smiling on him, he could shove all these papers aside and _talk_ to a _person_ instead of reading about how many bugs got into _these_ moonberry pies...

"That's the one, sir. Should I schedule a time, have them come back later...?" 

Soren had already grabbed a box and unceremoniously sloughed both piles of papers off the desk. With a *whump* he dropped the box and kicked it under his desk. "Nope! Don't worry about it, just send em on in!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a lot but I need to check some things before I write the next part, make sure I'm remembering them right, and I don't want to leave this hanging for too long on a fact check.


	3. Anabatic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claudia wants to make lemon cake.   
> Nyx wants to get paid.  
> Soren wants to be done with all this paperwork already.

Claudia couldn't help bouncing from one foot to the other as she watched the person - human or elf, she couldn't tell at this distance - slowly lower the crate of supplies off the dragons back. She hadn't run out of food or anything - almost the opposite, in fact. The crates contained lots of non-perishable, dry goods as well as a smaller selection of fresher (but still very much dead and magic-null) ingredients. So she was, in part, excited about the return of variety in her diet, since there were only so many ways to use the canned goods to make rice, oats, and potatoes not boring after the third week. But what was really exciting was the prospect of being able to have a _conversation_ with someone; she got a little weekly newsletter carried in on a crow, but she could tell they were written by military recruits as one of those punishments for the smallest things superior officers did when they were training them. And while she'd started to pick up on the different writing styles (they didn't sign the reports, but she'd decided to call her favorite Steffan) the crows never took anything back - she couldn't ask any questions, or let Steffan know that she definitely got the joke he was writing between the lines.

_Officially_ she was supposed to communicate any requests for supplies she had using forms that were left with the crates, but they were bland things with little checkboxes by fields with "MORE VEGETABLES" or "FEWER GRAINS" or "LAST SHIPMENT LOW QUALITY" and basically no room for custom requests. so if she, say, really wanted some lemons or maybe a different scented soap...well that was a perfectly good reason to start talking to the delivery-person ( _were those horns, or just really spiky hair? Not sure yet - and there's the next crate_ ) and if that happened to turn into a conversation, well that was just being friendly and there was no reason to be upset about being friendly right? Right.

So she very patiently waited - sitting down on that rock, fidgeting with the paper, walking in circles, sitting on a different rock - until the last crate was lowered and the person ( _pretty sure that's just hair, now_ ) started to descend the rope to collect the waste crate, at which point she happily very much did not skip over.

To their credit, the deliveryboy ( _definitely human, ears are round_ ) reacted to the sight of an obvious dark mage and known prisoner skipping towards them with a huge grin very well, in that they only flinched and jumped - they didn't scream or drop what they were holding.

Claudia chose to ignore that faux-pas. "Hi there! You must be the delivery - I mean, obviously, you're making deliveries - but anyway, you're also here to collect the other crate with the empty pacakages and also my requsitions list!" They chose that moment to resume tying the ropes around the crate. Claudia brandished the rolled-up form as she continued. "Which, if I'm honest, isn't much of a list, it's more like a form? Anyway, it's not a super great form, there's no room for comments - if there was, I'd write "add comment space" or something you know? - but I'm hoping next time they can include some lemons, because they sent me a lot of flour and one of the recipes I wanted to try from one of the books they gave me calls for lemon juice and lemon zest - like grated lemon peels, did you know you can bake with that?" The crate was largely secured, now they were working on the knot at the top that looped it all together. "Yeah! That's a thing! But so I wanted to try baking this cake and see how good I am without using magic -"

The requisition form was snatched out of her hand. Claudia frowned at the boy, who was quietly checking his safety gear before climbing back up and definitely not making eye contact.. "Okay, you don't have to be rude about it. Sheesh." The courier froze, took a deep breath, and turned away. Claudia did the same, and almost missed the quiet words.

"And my brother didn't have to die a mindless monster at the Storm Spire."

She spun around immediately "Oh no, I am so sorry I didn't think -"

"Stop." She did as asked, wringing her hands, and waited. Partway up the rope, their shoulders were shaking and their knuckles were white. "I was a kid at the time, I thought I understood what was happening until after it happened. And after -" Their voice hitched, and they resumed. "-Afterwards, it took me a long time to understand all the ways I was wrong. So now you're here, and everyone wants you to stay here to break the cycle - and I think I understand, I really do. But...but that doesn't mean I like it. I'll drop your form off."

Claudia watched as he climbed the rest of the way up, hauled the crate up, settled it on the dragons back - not a shake, not a slip anywhere to be seen - and she watched as they took off and flew into the distance. She sat down on one of the rocks, held her head in her hands, and didn't open the crates until her stomach growled a complaint hours later.

* * *

"Okay, uh, so remind me - is the third "i" _before_ or _after_ the dash?" Soren tossed another wadded up paper into the bin. Nyx politely ignored how it bounced off the top of all the others and fell into the slightly smaller pile around the base.

"It's after the first but before the second - are you sure you can't just put Nyx there? Or let me fill it out?" She leaned forward with a smile and held out a hand to accept the pen.

Soren slapped his thigh and laughed. "Ha! I wish." A blink and he focused back on the paper in front of him. "No, sorry, it's official paperwork. It has to be me who fills it out and it has to be as complete and accurate as possible." He looked up and grinned a little before going back to the paper. "Here, is it right this time?" He handed it off.

Nyx very carefully checked the spelling of her name, then nodded and handed it back. "Yup, you got it hotshot." He had not, in fact, spelled Naimi-Selari-Nykantia correctly, but the phonetics worked out well enough and she did not want to try to explain it again (Elvish and Human languages apparently had some different characters, and figuring that out had taken up the better part of the effort.) "So uh, what's the next step?"

He coughed. "Oh, right." He cleared his throat, pressed his hands together, and resettled himself in his seat as he took on a more serious demeanor. "Naimi-"

"Nyx. Please." She winced, sure she'd regret that - but Soren didn't miss a beat.

"-Nyx, can you tell me why you were interested in this position?"

"Oh. Well, you mean aside from the money, I assume?" He nodded. "Simple enough - I like spending time alone out in the desert, and if you don't mind me bragging, I don't think you'll find anyone out there better equipped than me to do so." She crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair. Soren scribbled some more

"Alright - okay, that actually feeds into the next question - why do you think you'll be a good fit?"

She grinned and flared her wings out. "Aside from the obvious?" Soren looked up from his papers, down, back up and blinked several times. She returned the last reaction and couldn't stop the disbelief creeping into her voice. "You're telling me you didn't notice the wings till just now?"

Soren coughed into his fist. "I mean, I saw them, but I didn't know if they were like...real?" She scowled at him. He flushed a bit and waved his hands about. "I don't mean anything - weird, I just - I still don't know all that much about the different Elves and their magic or clothing so I didn't know if they were part of your outfit or some kind of magic spell." He swallowed. "So they're...I guess...is that normal?"

Nyx rolled her eyes and shook her head, but the smirk on her face stayed as she explained. "For me? Yeah, I was born with em - for other Elves? You're looking at odds of one to nine for no. And before you ask, yes, they're fully functional." Soren turned pinker and Nyx's smirk sharpened. She flexed just a little, flapping her wings and rustling the papers on his desk - and his hair. He tried to smooth it out while she continued. "That's only one of the things that makes me the best choice."

Soren was still preoccupied with his hair. "What's the rest, then?"

"I mentioned that I spent a lot of time in the desert, yeah?" He nodded. "Yeah, I've been taking people and things across for years now, I know all the stops and I can get across in two days, easy."

Soren stopped fussing with his hair to look at Nyx, who was inspecting her fingernails as she spoke. "Two days? I know flying speeds things up a bit, but how can you be that fast when you're carrying people or things?"

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Do you know what an Ambler is?" He shook his head and she sighed. "Right, course not. Great big beastie, could walk over most any of these buildings out here and wouldn't even blink. Too big to be bothered by the Soulfangs or any of the Husks out there and keeps anyone or anything who'd be ground-bound out of the worst of the heat. Take a day, rest up at the Oasis overnight, one more day and then you're across the desert."

Soren rubbed his chin. "So you're saying you could be there and back in a week or less?"

Nyx shrugged and bobbed her head from side to side. "Yeah, probably. Don't get held up too often - might run into a sinkhole every now and again, but by and large it's pretty clean cut."

He nodded, still rubbing his chin. "Right, right. Okay, how much can your Ambler carry?"

Nyx shrugged again. "Never found a limit. I think once I was carting a few big old barrels of wine and we got stuck more often than normal because of the weight increase, but the old girl didn't act like it was harder work than normal, and I don't remember how much wine it was." She _did_ remember that she'd been able to treat herself on that trip a little bit - there were enough casks she could have a nip across them all and it wouldn't look like anything other than evaporation. But that wasn't relevant, really.

Soren pulled his hand away to write better nodding. "Alright, that's fantastic. We'll have to get a look at your Ambler and see how much exactly she can carry, but that is a big help. Next question - do you have any strong opinions about any of the following: Humans, Elves, Dragons, the War of the Dragon Prince, or Dark Magic?" He looked at her expectantly.

She looked at her hand as she ticked off her fingers. "In order? No, no, quit crowding the sky you bloody lizards, I prefer to stay out of politics - " she glanced up - he was still looking at the paper, so she continued "-and I've only heard stories, but I know it's something you don't want to mess with. That suit you?"

"Yeah it -" He coughed into his fist and straightened up. "Yes, that's a good answer. There's one question left before I think we can move on - would you be willing to sign a confidentiality agreement to not discuss the nature, location, or recipient of your deliveries with any un-authorized persons - human, elf, or otherwise?"

Nyx crossed her hands behind her head and looked at the ceiling while she stretched. A moment later and Soren reacted by inspecting his papers a bit more thoroughly as she responded. "Aye, that's pretty standard delivery stuff - you can get into all kinds of messes if people know you're packing something valuable. It does help to know what you're packing so you can take proper care of it, though - don't want to break glass or spoil any food, am I right?"

Soren nodded and tugged at his collar. "Right, yeah, that's important. Alright Nyx, looks like we've got a real good start on our hands here. I'll have to run this by some of the paper pushers-" He paused when she snorted. "-but then I think we'll be in a really good spot." He made his way to the door and opened it. "I do really want to see that Ambler, though I don't want to make you wait around the office until everything's ready. Is there a good way to find you when everything's ready?"

Nyx grinned as she got up. "Honestly, I think you're expecting it to be harder than it is. Scan the horizon for the really, really tall thing, whistle, and I could find your shiny silhouette in a snowstorm." She flicked one of his shoulder guards as she walked past, the slight "ting" accenting the wink she indulged in. "Until then, enjoy your paperwork."

Nyx was very polite as she worked her way out of the building, and Soren was very professional until the doors had closed. Then, once no-one was looking, both of them indulged in a fist-pump for a stroke of good luck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to google Naimi-Selari-Nykantia  
> I also had to add the angst tag because I'm a dumdum who didn't realize that being in solitary confinement because everybody hates you because of, yknow, the goddamn warcrimes is kind of an angsty topic. Whoopsiedoodle.


	4. Katabatic

Nyx usually preferred flying, but for the moment she was walking down the street. Walking used less energy, and any accidents were a lot less dangerous. Not that she was accident prone, but it's easier for anybody to slip up when they're distracted, and Nyx was very distracted at the moment.

At the front of her mind, she was thinking about the interview. There hadn't been any negative reaction to her appearance or name, and there hadn't been any pressure about the war thing, so she was pretty sure she was clear. But the interview being conducted by a human in a new, human building just called "Administration" had her pretty sure there was something political going on here. Not that she minded on principle, but she didn't know how far up the chain her name would go, or what had (or hadn't) been said about her to the Dragon Queen. She found it hard to imagine that she wouldn't have gotten mentioned at all; but she hadn't been on any bounty boards for the years since, so whatever was said couldn't have been too bad. The question was whether or not that'd come up, and how much she could or should talk about it. While she was pretty sure the human (she mentally kicked herself as she realized she hadn't caught his name) who'd interviewed her didn't know anything, there was no telling who else might get involved and how much they'd press the issue.

Her attempts to come up with a plan to cover her ass were being sabotaged by the other distraction - namely, the rumbling in her gut. She'd done pretty well on the clothing front - the dark leather getup was simple in design, but a solid material that looked nice, held up well, and had plenty of pockets - but unfortunately that still left her short on cash for lunch. She still had some supplies, but when you'd had dry rations and water out in the desert for most of your life, missing an opportunity for something different always stung. Hunting wasn't much of an option, either - she'd found out years ago that, especially around the desert, most anything alive had someone who would be very upset if it died nearby - and even if you were lucky and found something truly wild, city folk tended to get a little cranky about you gutting your catch with their children around. 

So when she saw a glint of light out of the corner of her eye, she gave it a glance, and had to stop - someone out here had planted a _Starfruit tree_ in their yard. The lavender fruits were notoriously delicious, nutritious, and currently reflecting the bright sun right back at her off their plump, ripe skin. She hadn't noticed herself walking closer, but she realized it when the smell hit her and her mouth started to water. She reached a hand out, staring at the flickers of light from inside - she'd been told that the seeds held some star magic, and they way the shone through the fruit she believed it - but she stopped herself, and it took a second to figure out why. One thought had pierced through the hunger - _What if you get caught?_

Sure, nicking a fruit off a tree for a snack wasn't that bad - but she was already worried about how much her past choices would affect this job. It'd be a lot harder to argue that she wasn't as bad as the stories said if they saw her stealing on the same day. As delicious as it might be, it wasn't worth risking her shot at this job. There were too many variables to be sure she could explain herself properly. She groaned and turned away - stupid civilization with it's stupid _rules_ \- and took to the sky. Maybe she'd think better with something in her stomach - even if it was just dry rations.

* * *

A dark haired young adult was looking at the box of papers with an expression Soren didn't entirely understand. He was sure he recognized the emotion, but he didn't understand why it was on this face at this time. He crossed his arms. "What's the deal, Parviz, isn't this the sort of thing you're good at?"

The boy sighed and rubbed his nose. "...I'm good with handling documents, but usually when they're already organized. This -" He gestured at the box. "- is not organized at all."

Soren blew a raspberry. "Sure it is, it should all be in the same order I was reading it, and they were all numbered. I just need you to separate the ones that I had read from the ones that I hadn't!"

One finger moved from the nose to the forehead, and Parviz closed his eyes. "That'd be one thing if I knew where you'd stopped, and if they were a neat stack. But they're all jumbled together, like you just dumped them in." He removed his hand from his face and opened his eyes to glare at Soren. "Do _you_ even remember which one you were on?"

Soren scoffed. "Sure, it was...uh, 37...C, I think? There was this baker, and he had a daughter who had a friend who..." Soren's explanation withered under the unrelenting glare. "Look, how about you just get them in order again and I'll figure out where I left off?"

A deep breath. "Sure, okay, that I can do. But next time try to keep them in better order so neither of us has to waste our time figuring out where we were, okay?"

Soren winked and clicked his tongue and pointed at his secretary. "Sure thing, bud. So about that application process...?"

A blink. "What, you mean for the courier?" A nod in response. "Well, we'll run her name through a few of the local authorities and see if they recognize her, and then send her information in for a formal check to make sure she's not wanted by the human kingdoms for anything either, and that could take a week or two."

Soren groaned. "Okay, so boring paper work is boring. How long until I can do something else? She seemed like a really good fit and if that Ambler is as useful as she made it sound I really don't want to find out she found something else. Do you have any idea how many jelly tarts those dragons have been eating?"

"Yes. I'm the one who files the paperwork, remember?"

Soren threw his hands in the air "Right!? So what can I do to speed this up?"

Parviz shrugged. "Not much on that front, I'm afraid - you could schedule the second interview, I suppose, but that won't really matter if she comes back blacklisted." He glanced up, saw Soren rubbing his chin deep in thought, and tilted his head towards the box. "...Or, you could help with some of this paperwork-"

"Actually!" Soren interrupted. "I think I need to go out and stretch my legs. At the end of the day I'm still a solider, and it won't do to have me slacking on my routine." He nodded as he backed up. "Yup. I'll just...go for a walk. Get some cardio. Have fun!" He slid out the door.

Parviz grabbed a sheet of paper from the stack, did his best to smooth it out, and sighed.

* * *

It was a miracle among a disaster, and Claudia was overcome with emotion. Her eyes were wet and her hands covered her mouth as a high pitched noise worked it's way out of her throat, muffled by the oven mitts. On the tray in front of her were a dozen ruined scones - lumpy, misshapen, and blackened - except for one, in the very middle. The tray was still hot, so all she could do was stare at the one pastry that had overcome all the odds to come out golden amidst all the carnage. 

She wasn't sure what she'd done wrong - obviously the burning meant that the oven was too hot or she left them in there too long, but was the misshapenness because they burned, or were they misshapen because she'd mixed something wrong, and had burned more easily because of it? She didn't know, but she did know that at least one of them had come out right, and that made her heart swell. She grabbed the spoon she'd used to stir the batter earlier and tried to poke at the burned results, scooping them up and dropping them into a bin with the rest of her failed attempts. Some of them were stuck on there pretty well, and by the time she had the bad ones removed she felt pretty safe in picking up the one success - still hot to the touch, but it didn't burn her instantly and she had to know - so she nibbled it.

It was gritty and dry and hard and nowhere near the quality of scones she'd grown up with - but it didn't matter, because _she'd made it_ and it tasted like a scone, it tasted like food made by _people_ and it reminded her of the first time she'd made pancakes and they were lumpy and flat but everyone had smiled and eaten them anyway, it reminded her of how _happy_ she'd been to share something she'd made, to _help_ people and share that she'd brought something good into the world and how that was it's own kind of magic, and so Claudia started to laugh. Then it made her think of everything she'd done since, all the people she'd hurt, everything bad she'd enabled because she was so afraid of losing what she had, and how because of that she couldn't share this scone with anyone, it was just her up here and it would be that way forever, she would probably never get to make something and share it with someone ever again and then she was crying, too, and she idly wondered if the water-salt ratio of tears would be right for any pastries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had irl interrupt with some very rude distractions. Sorry for the long wait.
> 
> Jelly tarts are not the only thing the dragons have been bribed with, but they were a non-negotiable point in the arrangement. Let's just say Ez might regret sharing his favorite snack with Zym.
> 
> Also how does one describe finger guns in a universe without guns?


End file.
